Price Drops on ATi HD5000 Series Cards Anytime Soon?

No price drops any time soon, but price increases. The supply is low because AMD is having yield problems with the 40nm chips.

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=654

Aw shucks....Your right. That process is apparently screwing them over because its like the smallest fab ever. I guess I will be getting a 4670,4770, or 4850. =/

AMD is a fabless company. They do not manufacture anything. Period.

TSMC is having production issues with their 40nm process. This affect both AMD and nVidia 40nm GPUs. There is no foreseeable resolution to improve yields beyond roughly 42%.

So much for making production cheaper eh?

I think that the price of Radeon HD 5000 series would drop during Christmas after TSMC would successfully fix the 40nm yield issues but if the supply is still low and the 40nm yield issue hasn't been fix by that time then maybe they would not drop the price very soon.

Yep. At first it was guite "sure" that the prise of 5000 series would come down a little bit after Nvidia Ferni release, but because Nvidia is allso suffering from TSMC 40nm production problems, the situation does not change even when and if Ferni comes out, because there will be even less of them, than ATI 5000 series chips...

I really dont think the yeilds are directly linked to the price of these cards, sure if th eyeilds were better they would have more room to manouver but i wouldnt expect a big drop in price should the fabs suddenly become 90% yeild overnight.

Mactronix

Not enough competition for that to happen  

TSMC still have issues as far as i know and it take several weeks for full production cycle to create chips, so if TSMC fix process now there will be more HD5xxxx maybe in about 6-8 weeks.

I don't think that the problem would easily be fix by now because TSMC's CEO promised that this problem would be fix by the end of year or Christmas so the estimation of when this issue would be fix would be about 4-5 weeks or by late next month of December (If we assume that this article is correct).

Digitimes article: TSMC 40nm yield issues resurface, CEO promises fix by year-end:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20091030PD209.html

But for the time for shipping these 40nm GPUs, I am not sure. Anyway, I bet that the manufacturers located in Asia Pacific might be the first one to get these 40nm GPUs once they are being fix but people in North America might have to wait longer.

However, there is still no confirmation that TSMC had successfully fix 40nm yields issue for the moment.  

Yeah, it would be nice if they fixed that.

I guess I will wait for late December/Early January for a price drop, and I will buy right when it goes down. 5750 is supposed to be mainstream but its about $150. Mainstream is usually targeted at Sub-$100 pricing.

Maybe 5750 will drop to about $100. At that point, it will be mine. =)

Oh? I'm getting mine ASAP for my mum.

2 more weeks

Why 2 weeks?

Productions gone up, problems fixed, cards on shelves, not saying therell be price drops, as there alot of back orders to fill, but theyll at least be coming in quantity

Maybe I'll buy in Jan.

The 58xx series may see the drop back to launch prices by then

Im still waiting to see what the non referance cards are like.

Mactronix

Make hay while the sun is shining! No price drops coming soon i guess, at least till GT300 gets out! And that's a long time away. Why should ATI cut profit margins when there's no competition.  

I was waiting for the non reference version with non reference cooler and I might get something like Radeon HD 5890 in the early 2010.

Wikipedia was also predicting that Radeon HD 5890 might even use 22nm GPU instead of 40nm GPU which is very interesting but it's hard for me to believe that is going to happen. If that is true then this means that we are quickly moving/transitioning from 40nm to 22nm by 2010.  

32nm is still believable! 22nm is a bit too much!

As if.

Anways, non-references are coming out, as I have my eyes on a Vapour X HD 5750.

Price drop? Maybe in Q4-2010...

Hah!

Well Q4 2010 is a long wait! I am planning to get one within the next few months, drop or no drop!

Well, nobody knows!

Im looking at a 5770, must say the Vapour X has had some good reviews. Its quiet im looking for this time around.

Mactronix

HD5750 is too low in performance. HD5770 is better. I think ATI should get something between 5770 and 5850. There's a huge gap in between.

Guess its take a gamble time folks, Do you want one ? If so you got two choices. Bite the bullet now and pay whats being asked or take a gamble that the price will come down at all.
I think there is a very real possability that if Nvidia dont release competative cards before a few of the better DX11 games are released then there may well be rises never mind drops.
Im happy with what i have for now, if i had not upgraded in june then i would be getting a non referance 5770 as soon as one i liked hit the stores, but as it is i need to justify the outlay and just cant pay what i see as over the odds just for DX11. Thats my personal view from my set of circumstances.
Anyone with a card (ATI) that starts with a number lower than a 4, well than it makes sense but for me not really. If i have to wait for the Northern Islands cards then so be it.

Mactronix  

Well, it's funny. It's not necessarily a supply and demand cure as a increased manufacturing cost. I mean, come on, AMD's MSRP for a 5850 is $259, now you can get one for $315...

Well, for now it looks like I'm stuck with the 5770 instead of the 5850 for now...

The Sapphire 5770 with Vapor-X looks promising...

My local Fry's started dropping their prices, 279.99 and 379.99 for the 5850 and 5870 respectively.

I know, just found out it existed!

Glad I didn't buy the HD 5750... length is the same and price difference isn't that high.